I know, I know - it's been extremely light posting the past couple of weeks. Frankly, it's taken me this long to get fully caught up on the post-SNOWPOCALYPSE and holiday backlog at work, and aside from that, well, there just hasn't been all that much going on.
That being said, we did open our newest show at The Theatre last weekend, and we have a late-night show opening tonight. I haven't been as heavily involved in these productions, so don't have much to report on them, other than you should definitely go see them, if you're in the neighborhood.
Went to a hafla last night at the invitation of a friend who was performing for the first time. Several members of my extended theatre circle are involved in the local belly-dancing community (not surprisingly, a lot of the people I know have overlapping artistic interests - creating a sort of a nightmarish Venn diagram of intersecting subcultures within the larger local arts scene), so I frequently get notices about musical concerts, gallery openings, fundraising events, recitals, and various-and-other sundry entertainments and exhibitions. But, this was the first time I'd been to this particular type of performance bill.
Basically, a hafla is a cabaret of belly-dance routines, in this particular case, students of my friend Kendra (mate of The Ghetto Hipster, my uber-brilliant Sound Designer on "Moon"), who teaches and heads her own performance troupe, along with a couple of spin-off groups comprised of current or former students. It was a chance to show off some new routines, or in a couple of instances, an opportunity for some of her students to do their first solo work on-stage.
(I should add that, although much of the work is rooted in what I suppose one would call "traditional belly dance technique", a lot of it definitely has a contemporary slant, especially in terms of musical accompaniment, and dress (again, not surprisingly, many belly dancers seem to have a strong connection to the local goth subculture.)
Throw in a singer/songwriter playing guitar, a new "contemporary fairy tale" concocted by The Theatre's Artistic Director, and a whole lotta red wine, and you have a pretty entertaining evening of music and dance.
Next up: my annual "Tax Tips For Artists" seminar on Sunday, after which I start plunging into VITA in earnest for the remainder of the tax season: recruiting and orienting volunteers, taking my annual refresher qualification course, scheduling appointments, and getting into the thick of things come mid-March - which, when you think about it, isn't that far away.
I was at home watching Season 2 of Eureka when my friend Dawn called. She was driving home from Everett, and asked, "So, how much snow do you have there?"
"Snow? Wha - ?"
I looked out the window, and sure enough, there was already about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch on the ground at the time I took this photo. By the time it tapered off around 11:00 p.m., there was approximately 3 1/2 inches.
Thankfully, the weather forecast calls for snow turning to rain overnight, so, with luck, most of this should be gone in time for the Monday morning commute.
Well, here we are not even two full days into "aught-nine", and in the relatively short span of 39 hours I've already done the following:
1. Celebrated New Years with a bunch of friends 2. Enjoyed live performances by three of my favorite localmusicalacts 3. Attended a wedding 4. Seen people do terrible, terrible things with battery-powered Santas 5. Walked in the rain 6. Practiced guitar 7. Cleaned my office and updated all my files for 2009 8. Eaten BBQ, cheesecake, and "hoppin' John" (not all at once!) 9. Scheduled a tax seminar 10. Watched two episodes of "Eureka" 11. Done three loads of laundry
